I have owned my 1991 convertible for about a month and I am on my 3rd alternator belt. I was told that all of these cars have this problem.

Does anyone have a solution? I tried to file off some of the rust/rough spots on the pulley. What have others with this problem done?

 

where in SC are you located?

 

I had this problem as well when I first got mine. went through 3 belts in just over a month. The last one i have had, has lasted a month or 2 without a break yet, so maybe it fixed itself. I have no solution for you though, sorry. Try playing wih the tension and make sure the pullies are aligned, and sand down any burs on the sides of the pulley that could rub and wear through it

 

I stay and work in Orangeburg but am from Rock Hill. Does Robert Haynes use this forum?

I was hoping someone had a larger alternator pull or a different design that defeated this issue. A larger pully will under run the alternator but should defeat high resistance in the alternator and reduce the bending radius of the belt.

 

Try some dayco or goodyear belts. The cheap belts tend to fly off much more.

 

I have a Dayco Topcog on it right now. It was $15; 3 times more than the cheap belts. Made in the USA. The Mexican Autozone belt lasted about a month. I bought a Korean Armormark belt from Oreileys as a back up with my emergency belt changing kit I keep in the trunk.

 

Thats a good idea lol. I might make me a kit of spare parts. I keep a full tool set in my car at all times anyway. A belt, some rad hoses, heater hoses and some injector orings
I once had to change injector orings on the side of the interstate. Pretty fun with big trucks going by at 80

 

with the way those truckers drive that would scare the shiz outta me

 

everyoen always todld me I was overtightening the alt belt...so i let it a lil looser then i thought it shoudl be...i think its supposed to have an inch of play in the long gaps center point...look in the FSM and let it a lil looser..just watch to see its not too loose

 

Ditto on ditch the Autozone belts.

The REAL problem is that when the ******* thing breaks, it almost always takes out at least one belt with it!

 

I use gatorback belts... Love them. Never had one break. But... like the others, they are more expensive.

 

i think i use duralast belts. So far so good but it seems like i cannot tighten the belt on the air pump enough. I mean the arm that holds the sliding bolt (i dont know what its called) just isnt long enought to tighten the belt all the way.

 

Do you have the alternator spacer on wrong?

If you look carefully at the pivot bolt for the alternator, there's a spacer that goes at one end.

If this is at the wrong end, things will line up and work, but they won't be quite right - the alternator pulley won't be lined up with the others, and it will stress the belt.

The way to look for this is to look at the alternator belt from the side - you should see it in a plane with all the pulleys it runs over. If it's angling forward from the next lower set of pulleys to the alternator, your spacer is in the wrong spot. Switch it, and it should help.

The other thing is, as mentioned above, tension. There are various places that specify the tension, but you should be able to push the belt in half an inch or so with a moderately firm press of your thumb. Too tight, it'll wear the belt (and be hard on the alternator bearings), but too loose will not grip and can fly off.

-=Russ=-

 

I had this problem when I had lots of corrosion on my pulleys. It was eating away at my belts.

 

I use cheap belts and have never had one break.

 

Is there a lot of black biuldup near any one of your pullies? That could imply the problem.

A sometimes, the alternator bearing can go bad and cause the pully to abuse the belt.

 

I am going to need to check that alternator spacer. I know I need to clean the pulley more. The Duralast belt was soft and the sides would wear out till the belt would slip, so I had to tighten it. I would not declare this the only culprit in the breakage issue though.

One time I snapped that alternator adjustment bolt. I thought I had stripped the aluminum alternator house but it was the japanese steel bolt. I bought a bolt and washer, ran them through from the back and put a washer and nut on the front. Now I know I won't strip the housing and I can just replace the cheap bolt or nut. I just wanted to share that.

 

i had a similiar issue for quite a while, only a little more severe. i was breaking belts every 15-20 miles. turned out to be a bad water pump. the pulley had just enough runout that it would eat the belt from side to side causing them to weaken. so i overhauled, new water pump, eliminated the air pump and added a mazdatrix dual alt pulley and no more broken belts in 2 years! take your belts off and check each set of pulleys individually, start with the water pump as is it easiest. pull off your fan (if you still have a clutch fan) and spin the water pump by hand. watch for any wobble (easier to check with a good dial indicator if you have access to one) go from there. good luck, i know all too well the frustractions of broken belts, i think i snapped literally like 40 before i fixed mine!

 

If your belts don't squeel then they are probably too tight, there should be a fair amount of play in them. if you don't have you're air pump anymore get a dual alternator pulley and run two belts, that fixed my problem

 

I think belts are sort of hit or miss. Ive used both cheap and expensive belts and had both fail for different reasons. If I go too loose on the belt it slips and wears and makes a horrible noise, but If I go any tighter its too tight and the damn belt will stretch, eventually leading to a breakage. The one I have on there now I bought an inch too short and now its already so stretched the alternator is adjusted all the way out as far as it can go. Im not sure what my issue is, but I havent broken one in a while, though it is clearly stretching. Though is a $11 Gates belt, one of the better belts imo.

I think my problem is just the fact all I have is water pump and alternator on a single pulley. I need to get the double sheave pulley for the alternator.

 

I had the broken belt problem to....mine was a bad regulater. rebuit the alt and it's been 4 monthes since my last break.

 

Thats not true at all.

 

How did you identify that you had a bad regularor?

 

i had the same problime with mine and one night i went through two belts i went to my local alternator shop and the owner gave me a solid pully the fc's come with two half pullys and they seald them together and after some time they my break apart and that is what mine did and when that happens one half of the pully slips wearing the opisit side out really fast this is what he told me and he gave me a pully off an old alternator that that mached mine but it is just one solid pully and i havent had any problims with it since
and an easy way to check is just take the pully off and if it comes off in 2 peaces that is the problim i stressed about mine for mounths and it was the simplist thing

 

I have a twin pulley and although i dont snap belts, on hard accelration in the low gears my dash warning display lights up and dims as the revs climb quickly and then slow down again. I have the black residue around the alternator which indicates the belts are slipping but i cant hear it over 400 rwhp.

I would like a serp kit from Atkins but the issues of timing concern me, thet last thing i want is to kill an engine due to poor timing just to fix belt slip.